


A Childhood of Markers and Crayons

by JustanInnocentWriter



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adopted Kid Lance, Adopted Lance, Bilingual Keith, Canadian Keith, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Innocent, Keith Has NICE Parents, Kid Keith (Voltron), Kid Lance (Voltron), Multi, No Smut, Parent Allura, Parent Shiro, Texan Keith (Voltron), becAUSE I'M INNOCENT HAH, lance is their adopted kid, married shallura, no major romance until they're older, not focused around klance until later on... because THEY'RE SIX, parent shallura, same with hunk x shay, shy keith
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-05
Updated: 2018-02-09
Packaged: 2018-09-28 11:52:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 11,246
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10099397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustanInnocentWriter/pseuds/JustanInnocentWriter
Summary: Lance is six years old, and his mom, Allura, makes a new friend who happens to have a kid too. They become... friends. Sort of. More like rivals.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> heehee no one else has canadian keith as a tag

 

“Dad! Daaad. Look! Can we watch this?”, six-year-old Lance asked, pointing frantically at ‘Phineas and Ferb’ on Netflix.

 

Shiro stretched his arms out on the sofa and sighed. “Sure, Lance. I’m just going to call mom, so turn the volume down, ‘kay?”

 

“Okay, Dad!” Lance responded with a grin.

 

Shiro dialed his wife’s number, hoping that she was done working for the day. She was the only working member of the family since Shiro had to keep the house clean and the like. It was okay, though, since she worked as a professor at a university, which supplied enough money for the whole family.

 

He stood up and walked over to the corner of the living room as the phone rung.

 

“Hello?”, a female voice answered.

 

“Oh, thank goodness. Allura, are you coming home soon?”, Shiro asked, almost desperate.

 

“Yes. I’ll be there in…”, she paused. “About five minutes?”

 

“Great. Love you, Ally.”

 

“I love you too.”, Allura responded. “And don’t call me that.”

 

Shiro ended the call and collapsed on the sofa with his adopted son, who was singing along to the theme song of the show he was watching. Lance was… energetic, you could say.

 

“So, bud, how was school?”, Shiro asked.

 

“Good! Mr. Coran says that we’re getting a new student next week!”, Lance flashed a toothy grin.

 

“Yeah? Are you excited?”

 

Lance bounced on the couch, while still sitting down. “Yep! He’s coming from…” he paused to figure out how to pronounce it properly. “Teh-xas?”

 

“That’s so cool! What else did you do today?”

 

Lance thought for a moment.

 

“I learned how to say some stuff in Spanish!”

 

“Want to show me?”, Shiro asked.

 

“Um... Mi nombre es Lance!”

 

“Wow, that’s really good, Lance. I’m proud of you!”

 

Lance was smiling. He heard someone opening the door.

 

“Mommy’s home!”, he exclaimed as he jumped up and ran to the door. Shiro stood up slowly, as he was quite tired. They made their way over to greet Allura.

 

“Hi, Lance!”, Allura said as she opened the door. She entered carrying a couple of grocery bags along with her usual briefcase for work. Lance hugged her, even though he was only tall enough to hug her waist. “Shiro, help?”, she asked, holding out the bags, which he took. “Lance, I met another mom at the grocery store today. Her name is Astrid, and she has a kid named Keith. Do you want to meet them sometime?”

 

“Yeah!”, Lance answered. “Mom, mom, look what I drew today!”, he exclaimed as he ran over to his backpack, pulling out a drawing of a…. Robot? Lion? Thing?

 

“That’s so nice, Lance! What… is it..?”, Allura asked, a bit confused.

 

“It’s a big robot made out of five little lion robots! I called it ‘Voltron’.”, he answered with pride.

 

“That’s really cool!”

 

Shiro walked over to Allura and put his hand on her shoulder. “I’m going to make supper, okay? Is lasagna alright?”  


“Yeah, that’s fine. Thanks.”, she answered and hugged him. Lance ran between them and hugged them too, making Shiro laugh. Shiro pulled away and walked toward the kitchen in order to start cooking. Allura sat with Lance on the couch.

  


An hour later (or, should I say, three episodes of Phineas and Ferb later), Shiro called out from the kitchen. “Supper’s ready!”

 

“Come on, Lance!”, Allura urged as she pushed pause on the episode they were watching. Lance got up off the couch and went to sit at the table.

 

“You’ve got to wash your hands first, bud.”, Shiro commented.

 

“But I don’t wanna!”, Lance complained.

 

“ _Lance,_ ” Shiro warned him.

 

Lance sighed melodramatically. “Fine!” He pushed in his chair and trudged over to the washroom where he washed his hands.

 

“He’s such a drama queen.”, Shiro told Allura.

 

“He takes after you.”, Allura responded with a mischievous grin and received a teasing push on the shoulder from Shiro.

 

Lance was surprisingly well-behaved during supper, to the parents’ delight. Shiro had made a delicious meal, which left Lance to stuffing his face, leaving no time to speak between bites.

 

When they had finished, Shiro gave Lance his art supplies (a.k.a cheap Crayola markers and crayons) and told him to go draw before he went to bed.

 

Allura went upstairs after about half an hour to put Lance to sleep.

 

“Have you brushed your teeth?”, she asked him.

 

“Um… yes…”

 

“No, you haven’t!”, she replied, smiling. “C’mon.” She put her hand out and Lance grabbed it as they walked toward the upstairs washroom.

 

They went back to Lance’s room, where the walls were covered in his drawings and the floors were surprisingly neat. He crawled into his bed, which had Pokémon bed sheets on it.

 

“Mommy, can you sing to me?”, he asked.

 

Allura sighed.

 

“Pleeease?”, Lance begged.

 

Allura knew that Lance wasn’t going to stop asking. “Yes, fine.” She said as she sat down on Lance’s bed and proceeded to sing a new Ed Sheeran song titled Galway Girl. Sheeran was one of Lance’s favourite singers, so she thought that he’d enjoy it.

 

Lance fell asleep sometime during the second chorus, and Allura stood up quietly and walked out of the room, closing the door gently.

 


	2. Chapter 2

The next day was a P.D. Day, so Lance didn’t have school. Allura wanted them to do something rather than staying in and watching Netflix all day.

 

As they ate breakfast, Allura stopped mid-bite to ask a question. “Shiro, Lance, would it be alright if I invited my friend over?”

 

“Yeah!” Lance exclaimed and Shiro nodded, his mouth full of cereal. “Wait, who?”

 

“Astrid. I told you about her yesterday. Maybe she can bring over her son and you two can play together!”, Allura smiled. 

 

“Yay!”

 

Allura finished her breakfast first, and put her dishes in the sink. She walked into the hallway and dialed Astrid’s number. Shiro was upstairs reading a sci-fi novel (which he seemed to like quite a lot). An hour later, while Lance was drawing something that looked like a… cat, someone rang the doorbell. Lance quickly looked up from his drawing to his mom who was curled up reading the Altea newspaper in a loveseat.

 

“They’re here?”

 

“Yep! C’mon, Lance.”, Allura reached her hand out and Lance took it as they walked toward the door.

 

Allura opened the door and greeted Astrid with a hug while Lance and another boy (presumably Astrid’s son) hid behind their moms.

 

“This is Lance.” Allura introduced him and urged him to move in front of her, but he shook his head and grabbed her hand.

 

“Hi, Lance!”, Astrid said and smiled. “This is Keith.” Keith waved shyly.

 

They walked inside and Allura and Astrid went to sit on the sofa. They started complaining to one another about ridiculous changes to the health curriculum and left the boys by themselves.

 

“Umm…. hi.”, Lance greeted Keith, not meeting his eyes.

 

“Hi.”, Keith responded, twiddling his thumbs.

 

“Wanna play in my room? I’ve got Power Rangers and Ninja Turtles.”, Lance suggested, shrugging.

 

“Really?!”, Keith’s eyes lit up, and he seemed more excitable.

 

“Yeah! C’mon!”, Lance exclaimed and grabbed Keith’s hand, dragging him upstairs. It hadn’t taken Keith long to open up to Lance. Sure, he seemed shy at first, but that was just because they were kids. The pair were both really energetic and competitive.

 

Two hours later, Shiro heard some yelling coming from Lance’s room. He looked up from his book, frowned and walked over.

 

Shiro opened Lance’s door. “What’s happening in here?”, he asked. The kids didn’t hear him. They were playing with some of Lance’s TMNT action figures.

 

“PPPPFFSHHH!! The tank  _ exploded _ !”, Keith screamed as he made Raphael (the red ninja turtle) stab his dagger into a tissue box. This made Shiro grin.

 

“Oh my  _ god _ ! AAHHH!!”, Lance made Donatello (the purple ninja turtle) jump backward from the ‘explosion’. Keith took one of the Kraang figures ‘die’ from the explosion as well.

 

“Hee-yaaaww! POW!”, Keith exclaimed as Leonardo (the blue ninja turtle) took out the last Kraang figure. 

 

“Yeah!! We won!”, Lance grinned as he made the turtle figures high-five each other in celebration of the victory. 

 

“Woohoo!” Keith looked at the door and his eyebrows furrowed. “Uhhh, hi.”

 

Lance cocked his head in confusion then turned around to see that his dad had been watching them. “Oh, hi, dad!” he looked back at his friend, Keith. “This is my dad! He’s pretty cool.”

 

“Oh,  _ pretty cool _ , eh? Thanks, bud.”, Shiro laughed.

 

“This is Keith! He’s my friend.”, Lance introduced him and grinned.

 

“Oh, hello, Keith.”

 

“Hi…” Keith had reverted back to being shy, as he normally was with new people.

 

“Alright, I’m going to leave, but Keith, you might have to leave soon.”, Shiro said as he shut the door to Lance’s room.

 

Lance was getting tired from yelling. He sighed and stood up, grabbing Keith’s hand. He pulled Keith onto his bed where they sat cross-legged playing more quietly with some Disney Cars diecast figures. 

 

“So, Keith, what school do you go to?”, Lance asked him.

 

“I’m not at school yet, because I just moved here with my mom and my dad.”, Keith responded and shrugged. “I’m gonna go to a school called… um… Eon-Galra? I think.”

 

Lance’s face lit up. “Really?!”

 

“Uh, yeah. Why..?”

 

Lance set down the cars quickly. “That’s my school!!”

 

Keith erupted into a beaming smile. “Whoa! Awesome!”, he exclaimed.

 

They heard someone opening the door and both glanced over there. Allura had come upstairs.

 

“Keith, it’s time for you to go have lunch at home.”, Allura told him.

 

“Mooomm… Can they stay? Pleeeease?”, Lance practically begged her.

 

“Yeah, can I stay?”, Keith asked.

 

Allura sighed and twirled her long hair. “I’ll go ask your mum, okay, Keith?”

 

“M’kay!”, he responded.

 

Allura turned and closed their door.

 

Lance pouted and crossed his arms. “I don’t want you to go! I’m gonna have to wait until Monday to see you then.”

 

“I don’t wanna go, but if my mom says so then I have to.”, Keith said and shrugged.

 

“Mmm... Yeah.”

 

Keith was fiddling with a diecast of Lightning McQueen.

 

“Keith, wanna keep that?”, Lance suggested.

 

“Seriously?”

 

“Yeah! It can show our friendship or something.”, he grinned.

 

“Thanks!”, Keith smiled and gave Lance a hug.

 

Allura came back upstairs and opened the door again. “I’m sorry, Keith, but your mom says that it’s time to go. C’mon, boys.”

 

The pair sighed in unison, Lance being quite a lot more dramatic, and made their way downstairs. 

 

“G’bye, Lance.”, Keith said as they hugged goodbye.

 

“See ya Monday, I guess.”, Lance responded and sighed.

 

Astrid was confused. “Monday..?”

 

“Yep! Lance goes to Eon-Galra too!”, Keith told his mom and grinned.

 

“Oh, that’s great!”, she said.

 

They all waved goodbye to each other, except Shiro, who was  _ still _ reading. Lance couldn’t wait until Monday when he would see Keith again.

.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the next chapter, I'm skipping forward to Monday, I think. Nothing eventful happens on the weekend.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's Keith's first day at Eon-Galra Elementary School! He's glad that he already knew Lance ahead of time.

     Lance had been waiting all weekend to see Keith again. That was all that he had talked about! Allura and Shiro had tried to get him to do something else, but he was drawing all weekend. Drawing ninja turtles in particular. He said that he was going to give his best drawing to Keith. Allura thought that was absolutely adorable.

           

     “Moooommm!! Daaad!! Get up, get up, get up!”, Lance whispered as he shook Allura. He had decided to wake up at 5:47 a.m., though he didn't need to leave for school until 8:30 a.m.

 

     “Lance..?”, Shiro mumbled groggily. “Bud, why are you up?”, he said as he reached for his glasses on the nightstand.

 

     “Gonna-see-Keith-today!”, Lance responded, barely pausing between words.

 

     Shiro sighed and stretched his arms out. “Alright…”, he stood up, and Allura started to stir. “Let's go get you some food, then”. He looked outside and noticed the gorgeous sunrise. “Look, bud. The sunrise!”, Shiro turned Lance around and pointed out the window.

 

     Lance’s eyes widened and he gasped as he glanced outside. “The sky is on fire!?!”, he exclaimed as he hid behind his dad in fear.

 

    Shiro laughed. “No, bud. It's just the sun.”

 

    Lance exhaled and ran downstairs energetically as his dad followed him. The cereal clinked into Lance’s bowl and Shiro put bread in the toaster.

 

    “C’mon daddy, hurry up!”, Lance called up the stairs. Shiro was still at the top while Lance had blasted all the way down. “Lance, it’s early. I’m tired. Go get some cereal.”

 

    Back upstairs, Allura figured that she’d better get up. She made her way downstairs, greeted with the sight of her husband and her son dancing around the kitchen singing to “ _Shape of You_ ” by Ed Sheeran. Yeah, sure, maybe the song wasn't all that appropriate, but, heck, it was a great song, and Lance loved Ed Sheeran anyways. Allura smiled as she watched them.

 

     Lance rushed through his cereal, nearly choking about seven times. Allura kept telling him to slow down, but he just responded with a muffled “ _KEITH.”_ , and she shrugged to Shiro in response.

 

     All Lance talked about on the ride to school was how excited he was to see Keith again. Honestly, Allura was getting _kind_ of annoyed. But, at least her son had a friend, that was good, right?

 

     Lance hopped out of the car and walked over to the driver’s seat window. He hugged his mom and waved goodbye. Lance waited for the crossing guard to give him the signal to cross the road, and when they did, he ran as fast as he could into the schoolyard, ignoring the guard’s cries to slow down.

 

     It was very nice out that spring day. Pollen floated through the air in the cool breeze (which was bad news for Shiro, who had horrible seasonal allergies) and Lance spotted many birds in the branches of trees.

 

     Lance _had_ been waiting for Keith until he got distracted by a worm inching its way across the pavement. As he was distracted, Hunk arrived and peered over his shoulder at the worm.

 

     “Lance, are you sure that worms are safe?”, Hunk asked, innocently.

 

     Lance shrugged. “They don’t seem too mean.”

 

     “Did you know that baby worms come from cocoons? Like butterflies!”, Hunk exclaimed. He was always spouting random facts, for no apparent reason.

 

     “Oooh! Cool!”

 

     At this point, Keith walked into the schoolyard with his mom, Astrid. He noticed Lance crouching with another boy dressed mostly in yellow, and tugged on his mom’s sleeve in order to get her attention.

 

    “Can I go see Lance?”, he asked, pointing in his direction.

 

     “Sure, honey, go.”, Astrid replied with a smile. She wanted to go speak with Keith’s teacher and the principal before classes started, anyways.

 

     Keith nervously wandered over to where Lance was hunched over. Lance glanced up and noticed Keith.

 

     “Keith!! Hi!”, he exclaimed, jumping up from his crouching position. Keith looked around and waved at him. Lance noticed that Keith was acting shy, and realized that it was because there were so many people. “This is Hunk! He’s nice. And really smart. He likes Power Rangers!”

 

     Lance was quite good with dealing with feelings. He had only known Keith for a few days and already knew how to make him feel comfortable.

 

     “Oh, hi! What were you guys doing before..?”, Keith asked, setting his bag down by the wall.

 

     Hunk grinned. “Looking at the worms. Since it rained this weekend, all of them came out to play because of the moisture!”

 

     “Hm. Interesting.”, Keith murmured.

 

     The school bell rang, and Hunk dashed off, mumbling something about being late and how it would destroy his permanent record. He was always like this. Lance showed Keith where to go and where to put his things. He told Keith to sit in the seat next to him.

 

     “Students, we have a new classmate today. Would you like to introduce yourself?”, Mr. Coran asked, gesturing toward Keith. Everyone stared at him as he looked down and said nothing. Lance was well aware that this was making Keith uncomfortable.

 

     “I-um, Keith is shy,”, Lance started, and Keith laughed a little and shoved him lightly on the shoulder. “I could… introduce him? Maybe?”

 

     “No, Iー”, Mr. Coran started but noticed Keith nodding toward him. “Alright.”, he agreed.

 

     “Okaayyy!! This is Keith. Even though his hair is kinda… weird,”, Keith shoved him again, and Lance giggled. “He’s nice. And he’s from Texas. I’ve never been there, but it sounds cool. I meanー”, he snorted, “Warm. It’s warm there... I think. That’s what he told me. Wanna add anything?”, Lance asked Keith.

 

     “Uhh… I like Power Rangers. And ghosts.”, Keith commented.

 

     “Thank you, Lance and Keith.”, Mr. Coran smiled. “I was wondering since you two seem to already know each other, Lance, perhaps you would like to show Keith around the school?”

 

     Lance grinned, excited at the opportunity. “Yes!!”, and Keith nodded.

 

     “Now?”, Keith asked.

 

     “Yes, take a hall pass, boys. Be back in about twenty minutes.”, Coran confirmed and gestured for them to leave.

 

     Lance grabbed Keith’s hand and pulled him out into the hallway. Keith made sure to grab a pass before he got yanked out of the class.

 

     “Okie dokie, so this is the principal’s office.”, Lance pointed toward a closed door. Keith head some… was that heavy metal music…? “The principal is called Mr. Zarkon. He’s kinda mean. But if you’re good then he’s not that bad. And what the heck kind of name is _Zarkon_?!”, Lance giggled.

 

     “Here are the washrooms…”

 

     “This school is huge…”, Keith murmured.

 

     “Was your old school small?”, Lance asked, tilting his head slightly.

 

     “Uh, yeah. Wellー no. It wasn’t small. It wasn’t big, either, though.”

 

     “Oh. Okay, gotcha.”, Lance nodded. “Here’s the gym, and the music room is down that hall. Do you need anything else?”

 

     “No, I think I’m fine.”, Keith smiled. It was just a little smile, though.

 

     They returned to class together. Keith stuck by Lance and Hunk’s sides for the entire day because he was nervous to talk to other people.

 

     At recess, the three were playing soccer near the playground when a girl from their class walked up to them.

 

     “Hi, I’m Shay. Can I play with you guys?”, she asked, smiling.

 

     “Yeah!”, Lance exclaimed, kicking the ball over to her. She started juggling the ball and the boys watched in amazement.

 

     “Pass it here!”, Hunk cried as he ran further away, and she kicked it to him.

 

     They kept playing until the end of recess.

 

     In class, they worked on art. Mr. Coran told them to draw their favourite animals, so Keith drew a turtle, Shay drew a lizard, Hunk drew a lion, and Lance drew a sheep.

 

     Keith looked over at Lance’s sheep drawing. “Ooooh, that looks pretty!”, he said.

 

     “Thanks! Yours is cool too!”, Lance replied.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

     The friends were sad to leave one another at the end of the day, but they knew that they’d see each other the next day.

 

     “Bye, guys!”, Lance cried to his friends as he hopped into his car. “Oh, hi, dad!”, he greeted Shiro and buckled his seatbelt.

 

     “Hey, bud! How was your day?”, Shiro asked, starting the car again.

 

     “Great! I showed Keith the school, and I made a new friend. Her name is Shay.”, Lance responded, smiling.

 

     “Ooh, do you like her?”, Shiro asked in a teasing tone.

 

     “Umm. She’s my friend, so of course, I like her…”, Lance replied. He didn’t understand why his dad was asking such silly questions.

 

     Shiro laughed and shook his head. “Well, okay, bud. You do anything else?”

 

     “We played soccer and drew animals!”, Lance exclaimed.

 

     “That’s awesome! I’m glad you had a good day.”, Shiro replied, and put an Ed Sheeran CD on as they drove home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> worm facts: http://extension.illinois.edu/worms/facts/ 
> 
> *dabs* I learned a lot about worms today. did you know that there are about 2,700 types of worms??? what the heck?
> 
>  
> 
> I'm trying to make the chapters longer as I go. This one's about 1.4k words. I'll make them longer soon, I promise. 
> 
> If you didn't know, the kids are in Grade One at this point.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The group is in Grade Two now, and there's some new kid with... giant hair. They look scary.

    Hunk, Shay, Keith, and Lance were best friends, almost inseparable, throughout all of Grade One, even though during the year of Grade One, there were a lot of changes.

 

    Keith’s father finally moved from Montreal to California and he was teaching Keith to speak French outside of school. Keith’s father was originally from Japan, but he ended up moving to Montreal with his family when he was very young. He met Astrid in Montreal, but they moved to Texas together (since Astrid had family there), which was where Keith was born. When Keith was little, they had always spoken French at home, but when Keith’s father needed to move back to Montreal for a family emergency, and ended up staying because he found a fantastic job, they stopped. Keith was picking it up again very quickly.

 

    Hunk started cooking quite often with his dad after his mom had said that his sandwiches were amazing. He’d been trying many different recipes from his dad’s cookbooks.

 

    Lance practiced drawing with Keith and Shay, and they were trying to write a comic book together.

 

    Even after all of these changes in interests and family, the kids thought that their friend group would always be the same. Until the first day of Grade Two, when a short kid with _really_ scruffy brown hair showed up. All of the kids had expected to be in the same class with the same students until Grade 6, which was what usually happened at their school. There weren’t usually a lot of new arrivals.

 

    The four of them stole glances at the new kid before classes as they sat playing with Beyblades by the wall next to the door. The kid was sitting and reading a book (that looked like the first Harry Potter book, though they couldn’t be sure) under a tree.

 

    “Should we go talk to him?”, Lance asked the group.

 

    “I mean… he looks kinda scary. His, um, hair. It’s big. And poofy.”, Hunk mumbled.

 

    “Agreed…”, Keith replied. His shyness had not gone away like his mom hoped that it would’ve by now.

 

    Lance sighed melodramatically. He stood up and pulled the two with him over to the new kid. Shay reluctantly followed them.

 

    “Hiii!” Lance exclaimed. “I’m Lance. This is Hunk, Keith, and Shay.”, he said, pointing at each of them individually.

 

    The kid raised their eyebrows, seeming uncertain. “Hello.”, they eventually said. “I’m Pidge.”

 

    “Pidge? What a cool name!”, Shay said, grinning, and Pidge smiled a bit and nodded.

 

    “Nice to meet you.”, Hunk said quietly, then turned to Lance. “Can we go now?”, he whispered. Lance shook his head in response and shoved Hunk gently.

 

    “Wanna come play with us? We’re playing Beyblades! We have tons of extras.”, Shay asked.

 

    “Oh, really? Yeah, sure!”, Pidge agreed, and they all walked over to where they had been sitting before.

 

    Pidge seemed to fit into their group naturally, providing witty and sassy remarks when needed.

 

    The five of them checked the lists that were provided near the doors, showing which students had which teachers. Surprisingly, they all had Mr. Coran again. The bell rang and all of the students filed into the school. Hunk, Shay, Keith, Lance, and Pidge made sure to get seats near each other.

 

    “Good morning, students. Isn’t it fantastic that we nearly have the same class as last year?”, Mr. Coran exclaimed. “Oh, right. We have a new student. Her name is Pidge.”

 

    _Oh._ Lance and Hunk’s eyes widened, but they kept quiet. They had thought that Pidge was a boy. Apparently Shay and Keith already knew, though, they didn’t seem fazed.

 

    Pidge waved awkwardly, and Mr. Coran started an activity where the students had five minutes to write down three facts about themselves and share them with the class.

 

    Lance’s three facts were:

 

 

  * _I like to draw!_


  * _I like Power Rangers and Ninja Turtles!_


  * _My favourite animal is a sheep!_



 

 

    Keith’s three facts were:

 

 

  * _I speak French. A bit._


  * _I like pasta._


  * _My best friends are Lance, Hunk, and Shay._



 

 

    Hunk’s three facts were:

 

 

  * _I like to cook!_


  * _My favourite animal is a lion._


  * _Umm… I only thought of two facts._



 

    The class (including Mr. Coran) laughed at the last one.

   

 

    Shay’s three facts were:

 

 

  * _I like to play the piano._


  * _I was born in Chicago._


  * _My favourite game is soccer!_



 

   

    Pidge’s three facts were:

 

 

  * _I like computers. And technology in general. It’s cool._


  * _I like reading too._


  * _My favourite colour is green._



 

 

    A couple of other random facts that were thrown around were… quite strange. In fact, someone said that they liked to run around with their dog and try to catch the Frisbee in their mouth. That was Lotor. He’s a weird kid.

   

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whUmp here are all of my childhood references to beyblades and tmnt!! :')


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lance and Keith have a "playdate" together at Keith's house. Though Lance doesn't like the word "playdate", because it sounds too childish.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> y'all thANK YOU FOR 600 HITS! and I appreciate all of the lovely prompts/comments! thank you so much!!

     Allura was driving Lance over to Keith’s house, as they had set up a “playdate”, though Lance thought that name was too childish. They arrived and Lance ran up the front steps with his mother following behind. He knocked on the door, and Keith responded.

 

     “Hi, Lance! Hi, Allura!”, Keith greeted him, grinning, and Allura waved back.

 

     “Hi!”

 

     “Alright, have fun, boys.”, Allura smiled, pulled Lance into a hug, and left. 

 

     The boys were about to go play, when suddenly, a loud voice boomed from upstairs.

 

     “C’est qui?!”, the man’s voice shouted.

 

     Keith sighed, seeming annoyed. “C’est Lance! Franchement, je t’ai déjà dit qu’il allait venir.”, he rolled his eyes “Honestly, like, est-ce que t’as oublié ou quelque chose?”

 

     “Oh, ouais, okay.”, the man’s voice calmed down. Lance assumed that it was Keith’s dad, though they’d never met before. Lance had no clue what they had been saying (because he didn’t speak French  _ at all _ ), except when he heard Keith say his name.

 

     Keith took Lance’s hand and pulled him into the living room. “Sorry. He just forgot you were coming. My mom’s out at a writing class.”, Keith shrugged.

 

     “Um, it’s okay.”, Lance responded, still confused about what they had actually said, and they sat together playing with Disney Cars diecast figures.

 

     “Y’know,”, Keith piped up, “Hunk told me that when you touch a girl you get this thing called ‘cooties’. And you hugged your mom so…”

 

     Lance furrowed his eyebrows. “Wait really?”, he asked, and Keith nodded quickly in response. “But. Um. No?”

 

     “Why not?”

 

     “Cause… she’s a mom! They don’t have cooties!”, Lance replied, raising his voice a bit.

 

     “Are you sure?”, Keith asked suspiciously.

 

     “Yeah, yeah.”

 

     “Okay. I kinda think it’s stupid, though. I mean, we can’t touch Pidge now? That doesn’t  _ really _ make sense.”, Lance commented, not making eye contact while pushing around a figure of  _ Sarge _ from Disney Cars.

 

     “Huh... I guess you're right. Whatever.”

 

     Keith and Lance played with the cars for about an hour until Lance suggested that they play outside. It was starting to get chilly, though, considering it was September, so Keith ran upstairs and grabbed sweaters for both him and Lance. They were about the same size, so it fit Lance nicely.

 

     “Papa, je pars avec Lance, okay? We’re going to play outside.”, Keith yelled upstairs.

 

     “Bon, okay, have fun!”, Keith’s dad yelled back, and they boys went on their way. Mr. Kogane was honestly quite content that they were taking their games outside because Lance and Keith were  _ very _ loud, and he was trying to get some work done.

 

     They opened up the garage and took two rakes so they could rake the leaves in the yard and jump in the piles. While they were raking, Lance proposed a challenge.

 

     “I bet I can rake more leaves than you!!”, he exclaimed with a smug grin.

 

     “What?! No way! You’re on!”, Keith replied.

 

     The boys raked the leaves as fast as they could, but Lance tripped over his rake and landed face-first into his pile.

 

     “Ugh.”, he groaned, but quickly jumped back up and kept raking.

 

     When the boys finished raking, they were exhausted. Lance slumped to the ground next to his pile but quickly jumped up with a grin.

 

     “HAH! Look, Keith! I raked more leaves!”, he boasted proudly.

 

     “Hmph. I guess. But,”, Keith stood up and walked over to Lance, “You have, like, five leaves stuck in your hair.”, he grinned.

 

     “Seriously?!”

 

     “Yeah, let me get ‘em out.”, Keith offered.

 

     “Nah, it’s fine. ‘Cause I’m gonna do…”, Lance paused to pick up some leaves. “This!!”, and he threw them in Keith’s face.

 

     Keith jumped back and spat out the leaves that had made it into his mouth. They started fighting with the leaves and shouting things like “EAT LEAVES, DUDE”, or just full-on screaming. That is until Keith’s dad heard them.

 

     He was just trying to finish reading an article on his laptop, but Lance and Keith wouldn’t stop screaming! Mr. Kogane was wondering if they were hurt since they were being  _ so loud _ !! He decided to go and investigate.

 

     Mr. Kogane opened the door, expecting to see a fight scene and someone crying. He was only greeted by the two boys grinning and throwing leaves at each other, though.

 

     “Mon Dieu, you guys are okay?”

 

     “Yeah, papa, we’re fine!”, Keith yelled at his dad, not looking back. He chucked a handful of leaves at Lance, who threw two handfuls back.

 

     Keith’s dad walked behind the boys, picked up a giant pile of leaves, and dumped it playfully on their heads. They all started laughing and sat together in the leaves.

 

     “Mr… um, Kogane, I’m Lance McClain.”, Lance said, realizing that he hadn’t properly introduced himself since he’d never been over to Keith’s house before when Mr. Kogane was home.

 

     “Oui, I’ve heard a lot about you from this little guy.”, Mr. Kogane grinned, ruffling Keith’s hair. “And call me Callisto.”

 

     “Okay..”, Lance replied awkwardly.

 

     “Now, we actually need to rake these leaves, because they have gotten everywhere!”, Callisto exclaimed, gesturing around them, and the boys sighed. They hadn't  _ really _ wanted to rake the leaves, they just wanted to play with them.

 

     The three of them raked the leaves together and were nearly finished until Lance noticed his mom’s car pulling up the street.

 

     “That’s my mom. I guess I’ve gotta go.”, Lance sighed.

 

     “Oh. Okay. Bye, Lance.”, Keith said, seeming a bit disappointed.

 

     “Au revoir.”, Callisto waved, “Aw, don’t look so sad, boys! You’ll see each other on Monday! That’s just two days away.”, he pointed out.

 

     Keith perked up a bit. “Yeah. that’s true.”

 

     “See ya!”, Lance grinned, quickly hugging Keith and running to his mom’s car. He couldn’t wait to go back to school on Monday and see all of his friends.

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, yes, sorry, Keith speaks French.
> 
>    
> Definitions:
> 
> "C'est qui?" = Who is it?
> 
> "C’est Lance!" = It's Lance!
> 
> "Franchement" = it's kind of like "honestly" or "seriously".
> 
> "Je t’ai déjà dit qu’il allait venir." = I already told you that he was going to come.
> 
> "Est-ce que t’as oublié ou quelque chose?" = Did you forget or something?
> 
> "Ouais." = Yeah.
> 
> "Papa, je pars avec Lance." = Dad, I'm leaving with Lance.
> 
> "Bon" = Good/Okay (like we say "c'est bon" for "it's okay" sometimes)
> 
> "Mon Dieu!" = My God!
> 
> ~~~~
> 
> OOOKAY! So, yes! Frenchies! But honestly, it's because I don't speak any other languages. WhOOps. (It's also because I wanted someone to be Canadian, so I made Keith's dad from Montréal. they're just speaking it because it's easier for Mr. Kogane, and he likes teaching his son to make up for the few years that he missed with Keith)
> 
> and whooooa, Chloe updated twice in two days!!  
> it's just cos I felt bad for not being on ANY social media this week. so yay! two chapters!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mr. Coran decided to take his class on an overnight field trip, and some people nearly forget their forms. 
> 
> Keith gets some interesting news from his parents at the breakfast table.

     “Mooommm. Please? The entire class is going, I don’t wanna be the only one staying at school!”, Lance begged Allura. Mr. Coran had organized a field trip to the Olkari Nature Museum. The only reason Allura was hesitant to agree was because the class would be staying overnight, considering it was about a three-hour-long bus ride from their school.

     “Why are you telling me this now?”, Allura asked. It was the morning before the due date for the form, and it seemed that Lance had completely forgotten about it. He wasn’t the most responsible child, which worried Allura a bit. She hoped that he’d grow out of it eventually. It wasn’t Lance’s fault that he had so much to do! ...Well, not really. He just had a lot of hobbies.

     Lance shrugged. “...Sorry?”, he flashed a smile, hoping to convince his mom.

     “Mmm… Okay. Fine. I’d better not hear that you were misbehaving though!”, Allura warned, smiling a bit. She was still quite nervous to leave her son under parent volunteer’s protection, but she trusted Mr. Coran to look after him.

     “I won’t! Thanks, mom!”, Lance exclaimed and ran up to his room to get the form for her to sign.

     Allura sighed and leaned against the kitchen counter. She’d only adopted Lance six years ago, and he was already going off on his own. Well, perhaps he wasn’t really going to be on his own, but it sure felt like it. A kid’s first night out without them makes the parents realize that they’re growing up, and that was what Allura was feeling.

     Lance interrupted Allura’s thoughts by waving the form in front of her face and handing her a Spiderman pen. She took it without saying a word.

     “Mom? Are you okay?”, Lance asked, cocking his head to the side in curiosity.

     Allura exhaled a breath she hadn’t realized that she’d been holding. “Yes. I’m fine.”

     Sure, she lied to her son. But how could you explain it properly to someone so young? She didn’t want to worry him.

     Lance hugged Allura’s waist and she smiled. She was blessed with such an amazing child. ...Well, sometimes. Then there were the times that he squeezed toothpaste everywhere, and ran through the house pretending that he was The Flash, but we can ignore those moments for now. It’s the good stuff that matters because no one’s perfect. He was still a kid, anyways.

**  
  
**

 

* * *

 

**  
  
**

     Back at Keith’s house, he was trying to do the same thing. Of course, he too had forgotten about the form until the day before it was to be handed in. He only remembered when he woke up, so Keith ran quickly into the living room in his pajamas, hoping to find his mother or father there.

     “Papa, can I go on a field trip to the, um,”, he glanced down at the form to read the name, “O...Ol..k-ari… Nature Museum?”, Keith asked, struggling to pronounce it.

     Keith’s father furrowed his eyebrows. “Um, oui, I guess. Ça coûte combien?”, he asked, taking the form from Keith’s hands and grabbing a pen off the table.

     “Twenty dollars.”

     His eyes scanned the form and Callisto eventually nodded. “Hm. Okay.”, Keith’s father confirmed, causing his son’s face to erupt into a grin in excitement as he signed the form. He pulled a twenty dollar bill from his pocket and handed it to Keith with the form. “Don’t lose this, alright?”

     “Okay! Merci!”, Keith thanked him and ran to put it away in his backpack.

      Keith had actually been expecting his father to decline and decide not to sign the form since he was usually really overprotective from having spent so much time away from his family. This was great news for him, and Keith was quite happy about it. He was a bit nervous to stay there overnight, but he’d be with his friends, so he hoped that it would be alright. He went to his room to change out of his Superman pajamas.

     Once he had done that, he heard his mother call him for breakfast. Keith glanced over at the clock, and it was only 6:58 a.m. He needed to leave at 8:15 a.m. in order to get to school on time (which started at 8:45 a.m.).

     At the breakfast table, Astrid seemed a bit off. She glanced over at her husband, furrowing her eyebrows and he nodded. She took a deep breath.

     “Keith,”, she started, and he looked up from his cereal curiously, noticing the soft and tender tone of her voice, “how would you feel about having a little sibling?”

     Keith’s eyes widened. “That would be so cool!!”

     Astrid exhaled. Thank God., she thought. She relaxed, happy that her son wasn’t upset or anything of the like. “So, um, you’re going to get one in about seven months.”

     Keith looked concerned. “How do you know?”

     Astrid and her husband laughed. “Inside my tummy, there’s a baby growing right now, and in seven or eight months, it should come out.”, Astrid replied, smiling.

     “Oh, okay!”, Keith replied though he was still confused. He had never thought about how babies were made before that day.

     Both parents were relieved that their kid was so accepting of this.

     “Am I getting a brother or a sister?”, Keith asked.

     “We don’t know yet, but when we do, we’ll tell you!”, Keith’s father responded.

     Astrid turned to him. “Callisto, I thought you didn’t want to know the gender.”, she whispered while Keith wasn’t listening.

     “You wanted to. So, j’ai décidé qu’on peut faire ce que tu veux faire.”, he smiled. Astrid was grateful that she had such a great family. They were so kind and truly did care for her.

     “Okay. Merci.”, she smiled back.

 

* * *

 

     At school, the five friends got together to talk before classes started. The wind was blowing quite fiercely that morning, though it was still warm out.

     “Did you guys bring your forms in?”, Pidge asked.

     “Yup, I got it signed this morning.”, Lance replied.

     “Me too!”, Keith piped in.

     Pidge raised her eyebrows. “Seriously? I signed it last week.” Lance rolled his eyes at her.

     Of course, even though they were only in Grade Two, Pidge was still the most responsible. She knew it, and they all knew it too.

     “I signed it as well.”, Shay said.

     “Same here.”, Hunk commented.

     “Yay! We’re all going together! It’s gonna be awesome!”, Lance exclaimed, and the group chattered excitedly.

     “My big brother is coming with us for volunteer hours.”, Pidge said.

     “Matt?”, Shay asked.

     “Yeah. He’s kinda… annoying? But he’s nice. I guess.”, she responded and Lance laughed.

     “ ‘Kinda annoying’? He’s not that bad.”, Lance commented.

     “He’s not your brother. He’s nice to you because you guys aren’t related.”, Pidge grumbled under her breath, crossing her arms. It was true, Matt always made fun of her and played pranks on her. Sure, he loved Pidge, but he was just teasing. That was what siblings did, and everyone knew that. Matt always acted like he was the best because he was in Grade 10, but no one else thought it was a big deal.

     The talk about Pidge’s brother made Keith think of the sibling he was going to have soon.

“Um, guys,”, Keith started, and everyone’s attention was directed to him, “I’m gonna get a sibling.”

     Lance’s eyes widened and he smiled. “Really?! That’s so awesome!”

     “Meh. Siblings are alright.”, Pidge said.

     This made Keith a bit nervous, but he did really want someone else to spend time with at home. He thought of all the things they could do together. Playing soccer, reading books, listening to music, dancing… It was going to be so much fun!

     “Are you getting a sister or a brother?”, Shay asked innocently, dropping her backpack next to the school doors.

     “I dunno yet. Mom says we’re gonna find out in three or four months.”, Keith replied, shrugging. He would honestly prefer to have a sister, but a brother would be great as well. He saw how Matt treated Pidge, and he didn’t really want that. Matt was nice to Pidge, but he teased her quite often. Keith noticed that it was usually this way with brothers and he vowed not to do so to his sibling in the future.

     Lotor walked up behind them and put his hand on Pidge’s shoulder, who wriggled out from his grip. She hated people touching her. “So… How are y’all doing?”, he asked.

     “Good. Keith’s getting a brother or sister soon!”, Lance grinned.

     “Really? That’s so cool!”, Lotor replied and Keith nodded. He didn’t really want to speak, considering he didn’t know Lotor very well.

     “Yeah!”, Hunk said and thought for a moment. “Oh yeah, are you coming to the field trip with us?”

     “Yep, I’m really excited!”

 

     Keith wasn't all that glad that Lotor was coming with them. He was one of the only students that Keith had never talked to in their class, and he didn't like talking to people he didn't know.

 

     “Great!”, Shay exclaimed.

     The bell rang and all the students grabbed their bags and headed inside to start the day. As they walked in the class, Mr. Coran asked for their forms and was surprised that everyone had brought them. He’d expected the majority them to forget it at home, that’s why he made the due date a week before the trip.  


 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for not having updated in a while!!
> 
> Translations for the French bits:  
> \- "Oui": "Yes"  
> \- "Ça coûte combien?": "How much does it cost?"  
> \- "Merci": "Thank you"  
> \- "J’ai décidé qu’on peut faire ce que tu veux faire": "I've decided that we can do what you want to do"


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith and Lance are having a sleepover right before their big field trip. They also have a drawing contest with Shiro.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **EDIT AS OF 10:24 PM JULY 14TH, 2017** 
> 
> if you saw the first copy of this chapter i'm really sorry because something weird happened with the format but i've fixed it now don't worry

     “Hey, Keith! Wanna have a drawing contest?”, Lance asked as he propped his feet up on his headboard. The pair were having a sleepover at Lance’s house before their big field trip to the Olkari Nature Museum. They were both very excited and had packed their backpacks earlier in the evening.

  

     Keith laid down next to Lance and copied his position, putting his feet on the headboard as well.

 

     “Yeah!”, Keith smiled. He thought for a second then furrowed his eyebrows, glancing over at Lance. “Um, how do we do that exactly?” Keith had never done a drawing contest before and he had absolutely no clue how it worked (truthfully, he didn’t know what was actually going to happen). 

 

     “Oh, uhh, I didn’t think that far yet. Maybe we could ask my dad?”, Lance suggested. 

 

     “Okay!”, Keith swung his legs off the bed and stood up and Lance followed. Lance took Keith’s hand and tugged him along to Shiro’s room.

 

     Lance loved drawing (and he didn’t care if he was good at it or not), so he was very excited to get the opportunity to draw with his best friend.

 

     He turned the doorknob to his dad’s room, but it seemed to be locked. Lance knew that his dad was in there, though; he’d seen Shiro go in about an hour ago and hadn’t heard the door open for him to leave. He shrugged at Keith and grinned mischievously. Keith frowned.

 

     “Daddy!!”, Lance yelled as he banged on the door. Keith shuffled behind Lance nervously; he didn’t want to get in trouble.

 

     They heard bedsprings creak and some shuffling of papers. Then they heard footsteps across the floor. Keith and Lance inched backward slightly when they heard Shiro’s door unlocking.

 

     Shiro appeared in the doorway. “Lance! Please keep it down while dad is trying to work.”, he scolded and frowned.

 

     “Uh… Sorry, Dad.”, Lance said. 

 

     “Mmm… Sorry.”, Keith mumbled.

 

     Lance was sometimes a bit hyperactive and didn’t have much of a filter before he did things, but that made him feel a lot worse when he realized that _maybe_ that wasn’t a good idea. He simply didn’t think twice about anything. Sometimes, it could be good, but other times it wasn’t. It happened a lot, but as he grew up it was getting a bit harder to control. Allura and Shiro talked about it frequently; they were thinking about sending him to a therapist if it started to get worse and saw no signs of improvement.

 

     Shiro sighed and ruffled the boys’ hair. “It’s alright. Just remember for next time, okay?”

 

     The younger boys nodded in unison.

 

     “Anyways,” Shiro clapped his hands together and grinned, “What do you boys need?”  


  
     “Uh, we wanna do a drawing contest. Can you help us?”, Lance asked.

 

     Shiro thought for a moment. “Sure. But only for a few minutes, okay?”, he replied.

 

     “Yay! C’mon!”, Lance exclaimed. 

 

     “Thank you.”, Keith said quietly. Shiro smiled at him. 

 

     The three of them made their way to Lance’s room. Lance plopped himself down on the floor and pulled down his box of markers and crayons from his desk. He grabbed some construction paper from one his desk drawers and spread all his supplies out on the carpet. Keith sat down next to him and crossed his legs. Shiro sat down on the chair next to Lance’s desk. 

 

     “Alright, boys. Should I give you a topic and you can draw it? Then we can decide together who has the best drawing.”, Shiro said. He didn’t want to decide by himself who had won because he felt there may have been some bias.

 

     “Yeah!”, Lance replied and Keith nodded in response.

 

     “Okay, we’re going to draw… bunnies!”, Shiro decided and Lance and Keith grinned in response.

 

     Lance grabbed a pink piece of construction paper and handed another of the same colour to Keith.

 

     “Thanks.”, Keith smiled.

 

     “Well then, I’ll just get my own paper.”, Shiro smirked and bent down to grab some white paper and a black marker.

 

     Lance drew a blue bunny with a purple tail and ears. The bunny was sitting on its hind legs and had its ears perked up. Keith drew a brown bunny lying down with a bow on its ear, and Shiro drew a black bunny (nothing _fancy_. Shiro had never liked drawing and he didn’t want to make a fool out of himself. Especially in front of his kid and his kids best friend.). 

 

     Shiro put the finishing touches on his drawing and chuckled nervously when he noticed that the kids had already finished and they were sitting patiently waiting for him to have finished as well. “So, uh, who do you think won?”, he asked.

 

     They glanced at each other's drawings and came to the decision (not on Keith’s part) that Keith had done the best job. This made him blush and avoid eye contact with both Shiro and Lance. Lance was secretly hoping that Keith wouldn’t grow out of his shyness (as his parents said he might); he liked having a quiet friend.

 

     “Wanna do another one?”, Lance asked (he was just saying that so he could try again to beat Keith).

 

     Shiro started to stand up. “Dad’s got to finish some reading now, okay?”, he said.

  

     “M’kay.” Lance and Keith replied and frowned in sync with each other.

 

     Shiro sighed. “Next time, okay, boys?”

 

     “Fine…”, Lance said as his dad left the room.

 

     Keith was fiddling with a toy lion he’d found on Lance’s bedroom floor. Lance started doodling a mustache on the bunny he’d drawn. “Hey, Keith?”, he mumbled as he proceeded to draw a monocle. Keith leaned over to watch Lance draw.

 

     “Yeah?”

 

     “D’you think we’ll be friends forever?" 

 

     “Yep. Forever. ‘Till we die.”, Keith affirmed with a nod. “Unlessー”, he gasped and brought his hands up to his cheeks. “We never die! Maybe we can live forever and literally be best friends for _ever_!!!”, Keith exclaimed, slamming his hands down in excitement.

 

     “Yeah! Forever!”, Lance said with a grin and hugged Keith. It was tense at first, but Keith eased into it after the initial shock.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi sorry for not updating but!!! i'm alive i promise sorry
> 
> sorry it's short :(( i didn't know what else to write whoops
> 
> (can you tell i'm canadian from how many times i apologize in the notes of all the chapters? i thought it was just a stereotype but apparently not eh)


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone shrieked from across the room. The three volunteers (and all of the students) ran over to see what the ruckus was about. “The frog is out!!”, Lotor screamed. He ran away to the other side of the exhibit, followed by the rest of the students.

 

     “Lance! Look at the dinosaurs!”, Keith exclaimed as he pointed at the giant, realistic dino figures in an exhibit at the Olkari Nature Museum. The museum closed at 5:00 p.m. on Fridays, and it was about 4:45 p.m., so the majority of the customers had already left. Mr. Coran’s class had special permission to stay overnight. Everyone had left their sleeping bags and backpacks near the entrance with an employee.

 

     They’d gone off in groups of four with one volunteer per group, but Lance and Keith decided to sneak off and go ahead. Who wanted to look at boring mammal exhibits anyways? You see them every day! It’s just a bunch of ugly bears and lions. Well, they're not ugly, they just don’t even look  _ real _ . The group with Matt Holt consisted of Lance, Keith, Pidge, and Shay (the groups had been chosen by Mr. Coran). They were somewhat disappointed because Hunk wasn’t in their group, but he was with his mom’s group so Lance quickly forgave him.

 

     Lance’s jaw dropped and he ran forward to lean over the glass. “Oh, my God. These are so cool!”

 

     “Aw, look at the babies!”, Keith exclaimed, pointing at the smaller dinosaurs. 

 

     Matt ran up behind them, holding Shay’s and Pidge’s hand. “They’re almost as small as you two, ‘cause you keep sneaking off out of my sight!”, he grinned. 

 

     Keith frowned. “Sorry?” He then wandered off behind Matt, who wasn’t watching him.

 

     Lance, on the other hand, seemed extremely insulted by Matt’s comment. He gasped and brought both his hands to his chest. He glanced around and found the fattest dinosaur in the room. “Oh yeah, uhh... Well, this one looks like you!!”, Lance pointed to the fat dinosaur.

 

     Pidge burst out laughing along with Lance. It looked like Pidge had started crying from laughing so hard. Shay looked confused, perhaps not understanding why insulting someone was funny, but she smiled anyway. And Keith… Well, Keith had gotten his arm stuck in a dinosaur’s mouth on the other side of the room and was crying, but no one had noticed so far.

 

     Matt rolled his eyes and rubbed his temple.  _ I’d better get a bunch of volunteer hours for this _ , he thought. He looked over to Keith; he hadn’t said much.

 

     His eyes widened. “Jesus, Keith!” Matt ran over to the child who’d managed to get his arm stuck in a plastic dinosaur’s mouth. “How did you manage to…? Oh, my God.”

 

     Lance ran over, too, followed by Shay and Pidge leisurely strolling behind him. He tried to push Matt out of the way; he knew how to get Keith out, but Matt refused.

 

     “Uh, no. Lance, stop.” Matt stepped in between him and Keith.

 

     “But I know how to get him unstuck!”, Lance pouted. Matt looked unconvinced.

 

     He sighed. “Fine. But you’re only a last resort, so don’t get all cocky on me. And don’t do it until I tell you to, ‘cause you’re probably just gonna make it worse. Pidge, keep a lookout for Mr. Coran.”

 

     “On it, sir!”, she saluted and marched off. Shay giggled and followed her. Matt turned on his phone. Lance wondered if he was looking up how to unstick a child’s arm from a dinosaur’s mouth. That would be a weird Google search. 

 

     While Matt was distracted, Lance took Keith’s arm and gently shook it back and forth while also pulling it toward him. After a few seconds, Keith’s arm popped free. As soon as he could, Keith jumped forward and hugged Lance.   
  


     “Thank you.”

 

     “I know, I know. I’m amazing.”, Lance said, and Keith let go, rolling his eyes. Matt turned around, saw what had happened and sighed. It was going to be a long weekend for him.

 

     “Pigeon, you’re off duty now.”, Matt called across the room. Pidge and Shay marched back in unison.

 

     “Yes, sir!”, Pidge exclaimed. “Also, don’t call me that.”

 

     Matt ruffled her hair and she wriggled away. “Call you what, Pigeon?”

 

    “Yeah.”

 

     “Okay, Pigeon. I won’t.” Pidge sighed and walked off to look at a replica of some sort of dinosaur egg with Shay. Matt decided that he’d better follow Lance and Keith, considering the trouble they’d already managed to get into.

 

* * *

 

 

     Matt’s group met up with Mr. Coran’s group and Mrs. Garrett’s group (Hunk’s mom) at the amphibian exhibit. The museum had brought in different tanks full of various amphibians from around the world. The kids all had their noses pressed up against the glass, trying to find the frogs, lizards, and snakes in their tanks. Many of the creatures were hiding behind rocks or camouflaged in branches or leaves. 

 

     Someone shrieked from across the room. The three volunteers (and all of the students) ran over to see what the ruckus was about. “The frog is out!!”, Lotor screamed. He ran away to the other side of the exhibit, followed by the rest of the students. 

 

     “In this reality, there is a 76% chance that the frog will be returned to the tank safely, but there is also a 28% chance that it will be put in the wrong tank. In any other reality, the odds in our favour would be much higher.”, Slav explained to his fellow students as they ran. No one really paid much attention to what he’d said.

 

     The volunteers panicked; they didn’t know what to do. 

 

     “I’ll go watch the kids…”, murmured Mrs. Garrett as she scrambled off. She didn’t particularly like amphibians, or anything slimy.

 

     “Which tank is it from?”, Matt asked. He glanced around at the tanks to see which one had any possible openings. “It’s a… oh, crap. This one’s poisonous. It’s a black-legged dart frog!”

 

     Coran gasped and took a giant step away from the frog. “Oh, pumpernickel!" He groaned loudly. "I hate poisonous frogs! We need to get an employee! Matt, can yoー”

 

     “On it!”, Matt rushed off doing the Naruto-Run. Lance and Keith laughed at him as he went past. 

 

     After a few moments of panic, with Mr. Coran screeching every time the frog so much as moved, and Slav rambling on about how there was a high possibility in this reality of someone getting poisoned, Matt and an employee ran in. The employee’s name tag read Neptune. Matt squinted and seemed to recognize the guy, who looked to be about his age, but perhaps older.

 

    “Hey, guys. I’m Neptune. I’ll just neeー”

 

     “Is your name  _ really  _ Neptune? Are you a Roman God?!”, Lance interrupted from across the room. Some of the kids giggled. The employee grinned; he seemed to be used to this.

 

     “Yeah, it is. I’ll answer questions later, okay?” Lance pouted, but let him continue. “Now, I need everyone back on that wall. Thank you!” Neptune pointed and people speed-walked over. 

 

     After a few seconds, Neptune managed to get the frog back in its enclosure with ease. Lance realized that he’d finished and dashed up to Neptune, ready to bombard him with questions. Some other children ran up, too, following Lance.

 

     “Are you a God?!”, Lance repeated his question eagerly.

 

     Neptune smirked and turned to Matt. “Well, do I look like a God?”, he asked him. 

 

     Matt’s eyes widened and his cheeks turned pink. “Uh… I mean, I guess?” Neptune grinned and clapped.

 

     “ _ Awesome. _ ”, Lance whispered.

 

     “Then it’s settled! I am Neptune, the Roman God!” 

 

     “Do you like kitties?”, another girl piped up.

 

     “Obviously! Who doesn’t?!” Neptune replied. Matt seemed to blush harder. Lance wondered if they were dating or something like that.

 

     “Umm… My dad doesn’t like kitties,”, Hunk said. Everyone turned to stare at him in bewilderment and disbelief. “Well, uh, he kinda does, but he’s allergic.” Hunk shrugged and some people giggled.

 

     Lance thought that it would be horrible to be allergic to cats. They’re awesome and he loved them. He hoped that someday his parents would let him get a cat. He asked them all the time, and they were against it from the start, but Lance had seen his dad looking at cats up for adoption online. Lance planned on naming it Hibiscus (he really liked the name of that flower and thought it was cool).

 

     “Kids, why don’t we go back to the exhibits?’, Mr. Coran suggested. The students chattered and split off into groups.

  
  
  


* * *

 

 

     “Please set up your sleeping bags over here!”, Neptune exclaimed to the children. “Remember, asleep by 9:30.” Neptune grinned and went to sit with the adults and volunteers. They had collectively decided to sleep in the Planetarium after watching a presentation there. 

 

     Lance and his friends put their sleeping bags near each other and started chattering (loudly) amongst themselves. Pidge, Shay, Lotor, and Hunk were reading some sort of sci-fi book together, while Lance and Keith sat slightly to the side (because both of them had already read that book anyway). Keith shifted his sleeping bag (he was zipped up inside it) so that he was directly next to Lance and they could feel each other’s presence.

 

     “Ohh, so I’m so cool that you want to be right next to me?”, Lance commented. He crossed his arms, raised his eyebrows and grinned.

 

     “Shut up.”, Keith mumbled. Lance laughed in response and hugged his friend from inside his sleeping bag. Lance might have been a bit cocky, but he genuinely appreciated his friend wanting to stay with him. Even though Keith was a bit shy (the opposite of himself), Lance still loved him and was grateful that he wanted to spend time with him.

 

     “Wanna play Ninja Turtles?”, Lance asked.

 

     Keith grinned. “You brought them?”

 

     “Yep!” Lance pulled four turtle figures, one Splinter figure and two Kraang figures out of his backpack. It was a miracle that he was actually able to fit his clothes in there in addition to all of the toys.

 

     “Awesome,”, Keith whispered and took the Raphael figure that Lance had laid on the ground.

 

     While the two of them played with TMNT figures, most of the other kids were falling asleep. 

 

 

* * *

 

 

     Neptune came up and sat beside Lance and his friends, who were still awake despite everyone else being asleep. “Guys, you’ve gotta go to sleep. Us adults want to go to bed too.”, Neptune said. Lance knew very well that they had to take sleep shifts because someone had to be supervising the kids at all times, so instead of being difficult as per usual, he decided to cooperate.

 

     “Okay. Goodnight!”, Lance said cheerfully. Keith handed him the toys that they’d been playing with and he put them away. The two of them noticed that their friends hadn’t listened.

 

     “Guys?”, Keith tapped Pidge on the shoulder and the four of them turned to face Lance and Keith. “We’ve gotta sleep now.”

 

     Pidge frowned. “Fine.” She put her book away and shuffled around in her neon-green sleeping bag for a few seconds before settling down. The three other kids went to sleep reluctantly, even though they wanted to keep reading.

 

     Neptune smiled. “Thanks, guys.” He walked off to join the rest of the adults again, where they started talking, presumably about who was taking the first shift to stay awake.

 

     Everyone fell asleep pretty quickly, but that was probably just because they were exhausted from running around all day.

  
  


* * *

 

 

 

     “Lance! Over here!”, Allura called through the crowd of tiny children who’d been in a hurry for some reason to get off the bus. Lance looked up and scurried over to his mom to give her a big hug. “How was your trip?” 

 

     “Long. I’m tired.”, Lance groaned.

 

     “But was it fun?”, Allura asked hopefully as she picked Lance up and put him on her shoulders. He laughed and wrapped his arms around her forehead for support.

 

     “Yes! I saw bugs! And snakes! And there were a bunch of dinosaurs and Keith got stuck in one, but don’t worry, I saved him. We saw a poisonous frog, and it got out of its tank, and then a guy who is totally a Roman God came and saved us from it! I think Matt loves him. There was a planetarium and we learned aaalll about planets and stuff, which was super cool. Today was shorter because we left early, but that’s fine. Also, on the first day, we played Ninja Turtles, and…” Lance went on as Allura brought him to their car.

 

     “Wait,”, Allura cut Lance off. “Lance, do you want to say goodbye to your friends before we go home?”

 

     “I did on the bus! Anyway so today there was this rocketship simulator and Hunk almost threw up. A bunch of people laughed at him, but I felt bad so…” Lance went on and on about his trip all the way home, and didn’t stop until he fell asleep (surprisingly early for once: 7:00 p.m.!).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soooooo... 
> 
> i'm back??? sorry!! i'm at a performing art school and it's taking up a lot of time D: but at least i updated? and it's somewhat good?
> 
> thanks for reading despite me never uploading rip


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “We’ve gotta battle sometime soon. I’m sure I would win.”, Lance grinned proudly and folded his arms across his chest.
> 
> Keith scoffed. “I don’t think so!”
> 
> “Next time you come over, we determine the champion of Pokémon Pearl!”, Lance exclaimed like a sports announcer.
> 
> “You’re on, dude.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I KNOW IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME AND THIS IS A SHORT CHAPTER AND I'M SORRY!!!!!!

     It was just after lunchtime when Keith rang the doorbell at Lance’s house and eagerly awaited the opening of the door. He and Lance were doing their final grade 2 project: the pterodactyl. Of course, when Mr. Coran had told the class that they were doing projects in pairs, the two of them made direct eye contact, both of them immediately knowing that they’d be partners.

 

     A woman’s voice yelled from inside the house and something rustled from behind the closed door, then he heard it unlock. “Hi, Keith!”, Allura greeted Keith with a big smile as she looked down at him. Sometimes Keith forgot how tall Lance’s mom was; taller than both of his parents. “How is your mom doing with the new baby around the house?”

 

     “Hello,”, Keith stepped inside and took his shoes off. “She’s fine. She’s pretty tired all the time, and Julia keeps crying so I can’t sleep.” He was used to the customs at the McClain house: take off your shoes when you get inside, don’t disturb the parents while they’re working (or sleeping), and be in bed by 8:30 p.m., or else Lance’s dad would give you a very disappointed look.

 

     “Aw, I’m sure she’s not trying to keep you up.”, Allura smiled.

 

     “ _She is!_ I think she wants me to fall asleep at school.”

 

     Lance’s mom chuckled and pushed her long, silver hair behind her ears. “I’ll have to visit sometime. Tell your mom that for me once you get home, okay?”

 

     “Okay. Where’s Lance?”, he asked as he removed his dark red hoodie and hung it on the hooks by the door.

 

     “Upstairs.”, Keith followed Allura into the kitchen. “Now, make sure you actually get some work done. I know you would like to play, but this project is due tomorrow. And you two have barely started!”, Allura scolded teasingly and handed Keith two pudding cups and two spoons to bring for the boys as a snack. It was true, though, Lance and Keith had spent most of the work periods provided in class playing CoolMathGames on the computers (and trying not to get busted by Mr. Coran or any other teachers that happened to pop by).

 

     “Thank you! And we will… Maybe.”, Keith smirked and ran up the brown carpeted staircase with the pudding and into Lance’s room.

 

     He pushed open the door to find Lance with his top half leaning off his bed while he played something on his DS. He jumped a little and almost fell off when he noticed Keith stepping in.

 

     “Ah!! Keeeith, you scared me!”, Lance exclaimed as he pulled himself up into a sitting position.

 

     Keith snickered. “Sorry!” He pulled his backpack off his shoulders and set it down next to Lance’s closet. “Here, this is from your mom.”, Keith handed Lance a pudding cup and a spoon.

 

     “Thanks! Just gimme a second, I need to save my game. Then we can work on the project!”, Lance said.

 

     Keith climbed onto Lance’s bed and sat cross-legged as Lance finished up his game. “Whatcha playing?”

 

     “Pokémon.”, Lance replied. He’d played three of the Pokémon games already: Emerald, Soul Silver, and Black. This would be his fourth, and he was nearly done it, too (he was already getting the sixth gym badge, even though Allura had only bought Lance the game four days ago at Toys R Us).

 

     “Which one?”, Keith asked.

 

     Lance looked up, closed the DS and set it in his lap. “Pearl! Have you played that one?”

 

     Keith’s face lit up. “Yes! It’s my favourite!”

 

     “Me too!”, Lance grinned. “The music is so cool… And all the Pokémon are _awesome_.”

 

     Keith nodded. “Which Pokémon did you choose as your starter?”, he asked.

 

     “Piplup. He’s so cute!” Keith had chosen Turtwig because when he had played the game with his dad, that was the one that Callisto thought was the coolest. The game was very close to his heart, being the first game that his dad had bought him once he came back from Montréal.

 

     “We’ve gotta battle sometime soon. I’m sure I would win.”, Lance grinned proudly and folded his arms across his chest.

 

     Keith scoffed. “I don’t think so!”

 

     “Next time you come over, we determine the _champion_ of Pokémon Pearl!”, Lance exclaimed like a sports announcer.

 

     “You’re on, dude.”

 

     This somehow led to a conversation about Keith’s baby sister, Julia, and how Keith didn’t want Lance to sleep over at his house because she was pretty annoying sometimes. Lance didn’t seem to mind noise when he slept (from what Keith had observed from their previous sleepovers), so Keith was wondering how a sleepover would go if they had one now that there was a crying baby.

 

     Eventually, the boys did get down to work (though it took them over a half-hour and Shiro reminding them twice) on their brochure about pterodactyls. They had taken Allura’s laptop in order to do research on the subject (and don’t worry, they did eat the pudding that she gave them, too!).

 

     The cover of their brochure, which was designed by Lance, had a big purple pterodactyl and the word ‘pterodactyl’ in big black letters across its belly. Keith worked more on correcting the grammar and doing the major bits of research.

 

 

* * *

 

 

 

     After three hours (plus an hour of fooling around spread out between their work periods), they’d finally finished their project.

 

     “ _Finally_!”, Lance exclaimed and flopped over with his back to the ground once they put the finishing touches on the brochure.

 

     Keith grinned. “It looks really good. And you’re getting so great at drawing!”

 

     “Thanks! I’m just glad we’re done.”, Lance replied then laughed.

 

     The boys decided to try to put together a puzzle of a basket filled with kittens that Lance had gotten that past Christmas (but he hadn’t put it together yet, though it was already the beginning of June).

 

     “We’re _never_ going to finish this!”, Lance groaned.

 

     “Well, we’re done the border and this corner here,”, Keith pointed to the bottom left corner that had been completed. “So I think we can do it!”

 

     An hour later (surprisingly, they had managed to keep their attention on that puzzle for so long) when they’d nearly finished the puzzle, someone knocked on the door. It startled Keith because he'd been so focused on finishing their puzzle. Lance snickered at him and Keith shoved him lightly on the shoulder. Another knock.

 

     “Yeah?”, Lance said.

 

     Shiro opened the door. “Keith, your dad is here. It’s time to go.”

 

     “Awwww, we didn’t even finish the kitty puzzle yet!”, Lance whined.

 

     Keith shrugged. “Maybe we can do it next time.”

 

     “You guys finished the project, I hope?”, Lance’s dad asked as he leaned against the doorframe.

 

     “Mhm, a long time ago!”, Keith replied proudly.

 

     “Wanna see?”, Lance asked and went to grab the brochure from his bag, not even waiting to hear his dad’s response.

 

     “Of course!”, Shiro smiled. Lance handed him the brochure. “Wow! It looks great, guys.”

 

     “Thanks!”, the boys replied in unison, then looked at each other and giggled. Keith grabbed his stuff, gave Lance a hug, said his goodbyes, and went home with Callisto.

  


 

* * *

  


 

     Shiro went back to cooking dinner after Keith left. He was making fettuccine alfredo and steamed vegetables.

 

     Lance bounded into the kitchen with a grin on his face.

 

     “Why’re you so happy?”, Lance’s dad asked suspiciously.

 

     “You’re making _pasta_ !”, Lance replied with a grin that made it seem like he didn’t ask for his dad to make pasta every night. “And I didn’t even _ask_ this time!” That was only because he was working and playing with Keith all day, though. If he hadn’t been, Shiro would’ve been pestered all day about pasta. Lance sure loved his pasta!

 

     Shiro laughed. “That’s right, bud. Maybe next time you won’t ask me all day!”

 

     “Hmm… I don’t think I can do that, sorry!”

 

     A timer went off and Shiro took the toast out of the toaster and stacked it on a plate next to the margarine on the kitchen table. “Well, it’s good that you came downstairs because supper’s ready now anyway.”, Shiro said as he took the pasta off the stove and turned it off.

 

     Lance sat down eagerly and rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

 

     “Ah, ah, ah, did you wash your hands?”, Shiro asked.

 

     Lance sighed and pushed his chair out from the table theatrically. “ _Fine_.”

 

     Once everyone had washed their hands and sat down at the table, Shiro scooped some pasta onto each of their plates.

 

     Lance shoveled his food down his throat, said thank you for the supper, and asked to be excused from the table (in a record time: seven minutes!). He ran upstairs and played Pokémon Pearl until Allura forced him to go to sleep at _only 8:35 p.m._ ! Lance was certain that he should’ve been able to stay up until at _least_ 9:00 p.m. Maybe next year.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hope u enjoyed this!! i wrote most of this in one night because i felt bad that it's been so long since i updated this fic! :(
> 
> i'll try to get chapters out more consistently haha

**Author's Note:**

> If you guys have prompts, I'd love to hear them. This is going to be a long fanfiction where I add on random bits. Just a development of Keith and Lance's friendship. 
> 
> I think I'll make it go until they are teens. Maybe then there can be some romance? I'm not sure at this point.
> 
> Also!! Parent Shiro x Allura is my liFE.
> 
> ******************************************************************************************************************
> 
> if ya want to contact me, please do! i'd love to get to know y'all! ;)
> 
> here:
> 
> ig: @pureinnocentchild + @sockaliens + @sockalienss + @coransmustachewax
> 
> tumblr: innocentlilnerd
> 
> e-mail: chloedthegeek@gmail.com


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